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INTERNAL SCHEMATA FOR LETTERS IN GOOD AND BAD READERS
Author(s) -
FRITH UTA
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1974.tb01397.x
Subject(s) - psychology , handwriting , reading (process) , cognitive psychology , stimulus (psychology) , linguistics , philosophy
Children of various ages and levels of reading ability and adults copied and reversed graphic symbols which were either normal letters, mirror‐reversed letters or letter‐like shapes. Looking at reversed letters hardly affected performance, but producing reversed letters decreased speed and increased errors considerably. Since this was found also when writing with the non‐preferred hand a mechanism more abstract than muscle movements must be implicated. It is hypothesized that internal schemata for letters are acquired when learning to read. Schemata are necessary in order to recognize letters despite distortions such as occur in handwriting. An effect of schemata for letter orientation was shown by 7‐year‐old good readers, but to a much lesser extent by bad readers. On the other hand, 12‐year‐old bad readers showed an effect of schemata to a greater extent than good readers. It is suggested that one type of reading difficulty may be characterized by weakness of schemata, while another type may be characterized by dominance of schemata. Optimal reading performance would depend on the balanced integration of two processes: paying attention to external stimulus characteristics (‘looking’) as well as using internal schemata (‘knowing’).